User identification and payment verification are important for transactions between consumers and merchants and service providers. Traditionally, merchants and service providers have implemented many procedures during in-store transactions to prevent identity and/or payment fraud. For example, when a consumer pays for his/her shopping with a credit/debit card, sales personnel can request the consumer to present signed photo identification. Sales personnel can then verify whether or not the consumer is the authorized user of the tendered credit/debit card through one or more of the following procedures: (1) comparing the photograph on the photo identification with the consumer's actual appearance; (2) comparing the name on the photo identification with the name on the credit/debit card; and (3) comparing the signature on the photo identification with the signature on the credit/debit card sale receipt. Additionally, sales personnel can visually inspect the photo identification and the credit/debit card to assess whether or not the documents are authentic.
The proliferation of online transactions presents significant challenges to merchants and service providers in terms of preventing fraud. Because merchants and service providers do not meet consumers in person during online transactions, many fraud-prevention procedures implemented during in-store transactions are no longer practical for online transactions. In one case, merchants and service providers may ask consumers to transmit copies of their credential documents through facsimile, email, or other online communication methods. However, this alternative may discourage potential consumers due to its time-consuming nature and the privacy concerns of transmitting sensitive documents. In another case, merchants and service providers may ask consumers to complete an online order form, which typically requires, among other items, the name on a credit/debit card, the billing address, the card number, and the card's expiration date. This alternative, however, does not allow merchants or service providers to crosscheck a consumer's payment credential documents against the consumer's identification credential documents. As illustrated by the previous two alternatives, during online transactions, merchants and service providers must often make a tradeoff between transactional security and consumer convenience.
It has been proposed to allow users to scan identification credential documents for use in on-line transactions. Problems occur when scanning such identification credential documents. Sometimes, for instance, a user does not capture all of the identification credential document or the document is unreadable for some reason.
Therefore, there is a need in the art to overcome one or more of the deficiencies set forth above.